Sumerian revival

The short historical interlude represented by the Gudea sculptures was followed by a full-scale Sumerian revival, one that lasted for four centuries and culminated in the unification of the whole country under the rule of Hammurabi in the early 18th century bce. Dominated first by the powerful 3rd dynasty of Ur and later by the rival states of Isin and Larsa, the peoples of ancient Sumer reverted to their pre-Akkadian cultural traditions. On their northern frontiers the Sumerian culture was extended to increasingly prosperous younger city-states, such as Mari, Ashur, and Eshnunna, located on the middle courses of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

In all these cities, both old and new, the period is notable for the advances made in architectural planning and the large-scale reconstruction of ancient buildings. In the south the early promise of Sumerian architecture had reached fulfillment, first in the great ziggurats, or stepped towers, rising above their walled temple enclosures at such cities as Ur, Eridu, Kish, Uruk, and Nippur. These huge structures, with their summit sanctuaries, the appearance of which can only be guessed at, were faced with kiln-baked brick, paneled and recessed to break the monotony of their colossal facades, and were strengthened with bitumen and reinforced with twisted reeds. Tradition associates the ziggurat at Borsippa (modern Birs Nimrūd, Iraq), near Babylon, with the biblical Tower of Babel. Surrounding temples at ground level were also much elaborated. The basic plan consisted of a tower-flanked entry, central court, antecella (or inner vestibule), and sanctuary, all arranged on a single axis; however, in the larger examples this plan could be expanded by means of communicating courtyards. Facades were often elaborately decorated with panels of pilasters (recessed columns) or engaged half columns, skillfully modeled in mud-brick. At Ur, kiln-baked brick was again used to construct corbeled vaulting over huge subterranean tomb chambers, entered through funerary chapels at ground level. Here, too, there are temple-palaces, the complicated planning of which is seldom self-explanatory.

Better examples of residential palaces are found in the newer cities of the north, especially Mari, where a vast building with more than 200 rooms was constructed by a ruler named Zimrilim (c. 1779–c. 1761). In this palace is found the standard reception unit common to all Babylonian palaces: a rectangular throne room that is entered by a central doorway from a square court of honour; and behind it a great hall, in this case apparently serving some religious purpose. There also is an immense outer courtyard, overlooked by a raised audience chamber, and, in the remotest corner of the building, a heavily protected residential suite. In some of the main chambers, mural paintings depicting ritual scenes and processions have been preserved.

The sculpture of this period is perhaps best represented by some well-preserved statues, also from the Mari palace. Their style owes much to the preceding Gudea period in the south, but they lack the authentic stamp of Sumerian design and workmanship. The same may be said of the few surviving pieces from the reign of Hammurabi (c. 1792–c. 1750), whose conquests ended the epoch—for example, the relief at the head of the stela in the Louvre on which his law code is inscribed.

Diorite stela inscribed with the Code of Hammurabi, 18th century bce.Art Media/Heritage-Images/age fotostock

Ashur, a small Sumerian city-state on the middle Euphrates, began to gain political prominence during the pre-Hammurabi period discussed above. During the latter half of the 2nd millennium bce, the frontiers of Assyria were extended to include the greater part of northern Mesopotamia, and, in the city of Ashur itself, excavations have revealed the fortifications and public buildings constructed or rebuilt by a long line of Assyrian kings. The character of these buildings suggests a logical development of Old Babylonian architecture. There are certain innovations, such as the incorporation of small twin ziggurats in the design of a single temple, while in the temples themselves the sanctuary was lengthened on its main axis, and the altar itself was withdrawn into a deep recess. For the rest, the absence of ornament and the multiplication of buttressed facades with crenellated battlements tend to monotony.

Other forms of art are inconspicuous, except perhaps the contemporary cylinder seals, which show an interest in animal forms that anticipates the relief carving of a later phase of Mesopotamian civilization. Sometimes known as Middle Assyrian, this later period corresponds to the occupation of southern Mesopotamia by the Kassites and to the Mitanni kingdom on the north Syrian frontier, neither of which contributed greatly to the total development of ancient Middle Eastern art.

The fuller manifestation of Assyrian art and architecture is not seen until the 9th century bce, when Ashurnasirpal II transferred his capital from Ashur to Nimrūd (ancient Kalakh; biblical Calah). The rise of Assyria to imperial power during this century and those that followed gave increased vitality to Mesopotamian architecture. The vast palaces brought to light in the 19th century emphasize the new interest in secular building and reflect the ostentatious grandeur of the Assyrian kings. Like the temples of earlier days, they are usually artificially raised up on a platform level with the tops of the city walls, astride which they often stand. Their gates are flanked by colossal portal sculptures in stone, and their internal chambers are decorated with pictorial reliefs carved on upright stone slabs, or orthostats. In addition to the 9th-century structure at Nimrūd, palace platforms have been exposed at Khorsabad (ancient Dur Sharrukin), where Sargon II established a short-lived capital of his own in the late 8th century bce, and at Nineveh, which was rebuilt in the 7th century, first by Sargon’s son Sennacherib and then by his grandson Esarhaddon. On the platforms at both Nineveh and Nimrūd, palaces and temples were multiplied by successive kings.

The platform at Khorsabad is occupied by a single royal residence, associated with a group of three modest temples and a small ziggurat. Similar buildings occupy a walled citadel at the foot of the platform, thus completing a complex that has been thoroughly excavated and provides the most informative example of typical contemporary architecture. Sargon’s palace itself, like that of Zimrilim 1,000 years earlier (see aboveSumerian revival), is planned, first, around a gigantic open courtyard accessible to the public and, second, around an inner court of honour. From the latter the great throne room is entered through triple doorways, around which, in common with the main outer entrance to the palace, are concentrated a fine array of portal sculptures. The throne room has an adjoining stairway leading to a flat roof and a suite of living apartments behind. Other state rooms, conventionally planned, open onto an open terrace facing the mountains beyond. All the principal internal chambers are decorated with reliefs, except for the throne room itself, where mural painting seems to have been preferred. The individual purpose and function of the innumerable administrative and domestic offices must remain largely conjectural.

Any history of late Assyrian art must be concerned primarily with relief carving. Some statues in the round have been found, but the comparative ineptitude of the majority of them suggests that this form of expression did not come naturally to Assyrian sculptors. Portal sculptures, which many would consider the most characteristic Assyrian art form, are not statues in the round but “double-aspect” reliefs (that is, they are meant to be seen from either the front or the side), apparently derived from a Hittite invention of the 14th century bce. These impressive guardian figures—usually human-headed bulls or lions—decorate the arched gateways and are sometimes supplemented by others set at right angles on the adjoining facades, their heads facing sideways. Each is composed from a single block of stone weighing up to 30 tons, roughly shaped in the quarry and then carved in situ.

Winged bull with a human head, guardian figure from the gate of the palace at Dur Sharrukin, near Nineveh; in the Louvre.Rama, CC-BY-SA-2.0-FR

Less spectacular orthostat reliefs form a continuous frieze of ornament around the bases of interior wall faces. There is evidence that they were placed in position before the walls that they decorate had been completed. Their carving in situ could thus be executed in full daylight. This form of architectural ornament dates from the first quarter of the 9th century bce and seems to have been a genuine Assyrian innovation. The earliest slabs, from the 9th-century palaces of Ashurnasirpal II and his son Shalmaneser III at Nimrūd, are about seven feet (two metres) high, with the design arranged in two superimposed registers separated by a band of cuneiform inscription. In those from later buildings, such as Sargon II’s palace at Khorsabad, the individual sculptured figures reach a height of nine feet.

The subjects of the designs on these reliefs are rarely related in any way to religion. Superstitious symbols do occasionally appear in the form of benevolent winged beings, or genies, but the primary purpose of the picture is the glorification of the king himself, either by scenes of ceremonial homage or by extended pictorial narratives of his achievements. The most popular theme, giving rise to numerous variations, involves detailed scenes of military conquest and the ruthless suppression of revolt. These are often arranged episodically to represent successive events in the progress of a single campaign: the Assyrian army prepares for war; led by the king, it crosses difficult country on the way to attack a walled city; the city is taken, burnt, and demolished; the enemy leaders are punished with conspicuous brutality; and, finally, the victory is celebrated. Scenes such as these are distinguished above all by their stylistic vitality and fanciful detail. Animals as well as men are carefully observed and beautifully drawn. The principles of perspective as later defined by the Greeks are unknown, but attention is given to the relationship of figures in space and to devices for suggesting comparative distance.

At Khorsabad, late in the 8th century bce, some notable stylistic changes are perceptible. The lively carving of narrative and historical subjects has been replaced by more tedious symbols of pomp and ceremony. In keeping with the winged bulls and genies of the portal sculptures, stiffly arranged files of courtiers, officials, and servants stand immobilized in the routine of ceremonial homage. The monotony of the figures is occasionally relieved by the sparing use of coloured pigment on the stone.

In the 7th-century palaces of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, the reliefs suggest a reaction in favour of narrative and violent activity. The slabs are covered to their full height by complicated battle scenes in which the progress of the fighting is suggested by episodic repetition. Types of landscape are depicted schematically, and significant episodes or individuals are identified by a short inscription, without impairing the overall rhythm of the design.

In the intervals between their military campaigns, Assyrian kings appear to have been much preoccupied with hunting, and scenes from the chase provided an alternative subject for the reliefs. Lions hunted with spears from a light chariot and herds of wild asses (onagers) or gazelles are subjects that stimulated the imagination and sensibility of the Assyrian artist.

A contrast to these descriptive carvings is provided by the formal monumentality of the Assyrian rock reliefs, secular or religious devices carved on vertical rock faces in localities such as Bavian and Maltai to commemorate historical events that took place there.

The Assyrian talent for relief ornament was not confined to sculpture in stone. First seen during the reign of Shalmaneser III (858–824 bce) are striking examples of relief modeling in bronze. The huge wooden gates of a minor palace at Imgur-Enlil (Balawat), near Nimrūd, were decorated with horizontal bands of metal, 11 inches (28 centimetres) high, each modeled by a repoussé process (relief hammered out from behind), with a double register of narrative scenes. Their subjects are much the same as the stone reliefs, but even greater ingenuity has been used in adapting the designs to so confined a space.

When greater economy of labour and material was necessary, mural paintings were substituted for slab reliefs. At the time of Tiglath-pileser III (744–727 bce), a country palace at Til Barsip (modern Tall al-Ahmar) was decorated in this way, with the conventional motifs of relief designs rather clumsily adapted to this very different medium. A few years later, such paintings were extensively used to decorate both wall faces and ceilings in Sargon II’s palace buildings at Khorsabad. One magnificent panel of formalized ornament has been reconstructed. It is painted in primary colours on a white ground.

There is evidence that the Assyrian palaces were well equipped with furniture. The wooden components have perished, but the ivory ornaments with which the furniture was enriched have survived in great quantities. Of these “Assyrian ivories”—relief panels, inlays, and other forms of ornament—only a small proportion can be attributed to indigenous workmanship. The remainder represent either loot from the cities of Syria and Phoenicia or the work of craftsmen imported from those regions. The carving is often technically superb, and the enrichment of the ivory with gold, semiprecious stones, or coloured paste by cloisonné or champlevé processes (whereby the applied decoration is outlined by raised metal strips or fills depressed areas of the surface that have been cut out to receive it) gives increased elegance. The designs, however, are for the most part a pastiche of misunderstood Egyptian symbolism and are often less attractive than the purely Assyrian devices.

During the half century following the fall of Nineveh, in 612 bce, there was a final flowering of Mesopotamian culture in southern Iraq under the last dynasty of Babylonian kings. During the reigns of Nabopolassar (625–605 bce) and his son Nebuchadrezzar II (604–562 bce), there was widespread building activity. Temples and ziggurats were repaired or rebuilt in almost all the old dynastic cities, while Babylon itself was enormously enlarged and surrounded by a double enceinte, or line of fortification, consisting of towered and moated fortress walls. Inside the city the most grandiose effect was obtained by the disposal of public buildings along a wide processional way, leading through the centre of the town to the temple and ziggurat of its patron god, Marduk. Where the street passed through the inner-city wall, the facades of the famous Ishtar Gate (Pergamon Museum, Berlin) and those facing the adjoining street were ornamented in brightly glazed brickwork, with huge figures of bulls, lions, and dragons modeled in relief. This form of decoration—a costly process, since each of the bricks composing the figures had to be separately cast—provided a solution for the problem of embellishing mud-brick facades. It appears again in the court of honour of Nebuchadrezzar’s palace, using a more sophisticated design that suggests familiarity with Greek ornament. For the rest, there are few innovations in the planning of either palaces or temples during the Neo-Babylonian period. Also (strangely enough, in view of the prolonged excavations that took place at this site), examples of contemporary art are limited almost exclusively to cylinder seals and terra-cotta figurines of unpretentious design.